Search form

Search form

Self-driving trucks and cars are poised to have an impact on the manufacturing and commercial industries. Automated mining trucks are being used by Caterpillar, and the trucking industry is eyeing the cost savings that automated vehicles could deliver.

Related Summaries

Anthony Levandowski and Lior Ron, former Google employees and now founders of Ottomotto, are working to develop a kit to transform 2013 and later-model trailer trucks into self-driving vehicles. The $30,000 kit includes cameras, sensors and customized software, but the automation is designed to work only on highways.

Cruise Automation, which General Motors bought this spring, expanded testing of self-driving Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicles from San Francisco to Scottsdale, Ariz. Google also tests cars in Scottsdale, as the state offers a friendly regulatory environment.

The autonomous vehicle trend could soon include 18-wheelers. Ottomotto, a startup led by a former Google self-driving car engineer, is working to upgrade big rigs with self-driving technology. The company has begun trials using Volvo AB trucks.

People will be able to summon fully autonomous vehicles to transport them by 2025, and 12 million self-driving vehicles will be on the road by 2035, IHS Automotive says. A number of automakers are working on self-driving vehicles, and Mercedes, Tesla and Volvo are all building on their already launched semi-autonomous features to have cars that will be nearly self-driving by the end of the decade.

The use and testing of driverless vehicles on public and commercial roadways continues to expand as sensing technology evolves, although experts say that a fully autonomous consumer vehicle might be decades away. Caterpillar is using self-driving mining vehicles in a Western Australia ore mine, with plans to employ 45 driverless trucks in coming years. The U.S. Army and Lockheed Martin have reported success in testing driverless military convoys.